Open general discussion on photography related topics and news.This is not a photo sharing or critique forum. All photo sharing and critique requests should be posted in the appropriate Member's Gallery or Critic's Corner.

cyclohexane wrote:ThumbsPlus is about to be 22 years old! Whoa. I remember when it showed up as "ThumbsUp!" before they had to change their name because of trademark issues.

I'm happy to report success and a minor victory. Not knowing how the data would be presented, I plugged in what I thought was appropriate information into blocks on the IPTC editor for a test image. I uploaded the image with the embedded information to a Facebook album. When the image was posted the Item name and the caption appeared with the image. Now my enthusiasm might be juvenile but this is pretty dang spiffy. I have potential and now I need to see how it can be used beneficially.

Thanks Michael and Duck. Your input and suggestions have been both enlightening and useful. I love being a part of this community.

I recall using ThumbsPlus way back in the day. I have to agree that it was a very handy program. I don't remember why I ended up not using it, probably just outgrew it, but I too am surprised it's still around. That's a good testament of its usability.

Duck wrote:I recall using ThumbsPlus way back in the day. I have to agree that it was a very handy program. I don't remember why I ended up not using it, probably just outgrew it, but I too am surprised it's still around. That's a good testament of its usability.

Indeed the software is still around. The current version is 10 but I'm still using 7. I began using it in 2007 because it was the program the photographer I was working for used for sorting and previewing. He'd been using it for about 9 years prior. I believe it must have been one of the first pieces of software to display thumbnails along side a directory tree. Of course Windows Explorer will pretty much do that today. Thumbs Plus may predate Adobe Bridge as well. I'm really happy to discover IPTC and the editor built into Thumbs Plus since I'm fairly familiar with the conventions of the program.

Prior to Bridge, there was a similar software inside of Photoshop called "Browser".

Photo Mechanic is my favorite software, but I use it less and less now. Somewhat recently, I adopted an eclectic collection of cameras for my use, and I've found perhaps the only remaining cameras with compatibility issues with the software. I swore I left these problems behind when I left the Nikon D2H behind, and that camera came out in 2003!

Prior to Bridge, there was a similar software inside of Photoshop called "Browser".

Photo Mechanic is my favorite software, but I use it less and less now. Somewhat recently, I adopted an eclectic collection of cameras for my use, and I've found perhaps the only remaining cameras with compatibility issues with the software. I swore I left these problems behind when I left the Nikon D2H behind, and that camera came out in 2003!

When I returned to photography the first camera put in my hands was a Nikon D2X and at the time it was the flagship model, though I'm pretty sure it had been in that position for quite a while (and a quantum leap ahead of the D1 series). New as I am to digital photography it seems like a long time ago, particularly measured in new model releases.

Now that I've found a partial solution to my image references I'm in a quandary: Given that I can embed so much information about the subject in the image how should I rename the image file itself. A coded serial number for the piece makes sense to me. I'm thinking of a scheme with a set number of characters for the top 5 or 6 attributes then _001.jpg, _002.jpg, _003.jpg for the various views (obverse, reverse, detail). The serial number to identify the physical item. That s/n would be duplicated as the file name and repeated in the IPTC "Object Name" then the "Headline" would be the common name, and the full specifications described in the "Caption". If I was only providing the photography the chore would be done. Since this project is going to entail listing each item I'll also have to duplicate all of the data about each coin into a database that is far more extensive in that it will have fields for such things as pricing, value, inventory status [on-hand, listed, sold, wanted] to name a few. With the software options I'm looking at, I do not see a way to either import the data from the database into the IPTC fields; or import the IPTC fields into the database. Duplicating keystrokes isn't part of what I was hoping for. Hopefully the IPTC fields will populate into a future website catalog for listings.